NCGA Adds to the List of Those Urging Biden to Address Mexico’s GMO Corn Ban

NCGA and presidents of 23 state grower organizations are adding their voices to a growing list who want the Biden administration to deal with Mexico’s coming ban (starting in 2025) on imports of GMO corn.

By Jenna Hoffman and Jim Wiesemeyer

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December 16, 2022 09:45 AM

In Mexico, corn is much more than a food crop—it's a key part of the country's heritage, culture and traditions. Mexico argues glyphosate and GMOs are dangerous to human health, and seeks alternative practices. — In Mexico, corn is much more than a food crop—it’s a key part of the country’s heritage, culture and traditions. Mexico argues glyphosate and GMOs are dangerous to human health, and seeks alternative practices.

The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) and presidents of 23 state grower organizations are adding their voices to a growing list who want the Biden administration to deal with Mexico’s coming ban (starting in 2025) on imports of GMO corn.

In a letter to President Joe Biden, the group called on Biden to make the issue a “critical part” of the Jan. 9 meeting between with Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

They also called on Biden to direct USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to “set a firm, quick timeline with Mexico to withdraw the decree or initiate a case under the biotechnology provisions of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), and you do so without agreeing to a ban of any form of biotech corn, including white corn that is used for human consumption.”

Mexico’s coming ban would “ignore the science and turn the clock back on a quarter century of environmental gains.”

Word on The Hill

Sens. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) also submitted a bipartisan letter with 24 colleagues to address the issue.

“These actions are unsupported by science and a breach of USMCA. It would be detrimental to food security in Mexico, hurt U.S. agricultural sustainability, and stifle future agricultural technology innovations that would benefit both nations... we also encourage the administration to consider all options available in an effort to hold Mexico to their trade commitments including pursuing a dispute settlement process through USMCA,” the senators wrote in their letter.

Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said he and other Mexican officials would visit Washington on Friday to seek “points of agreement on genetically modified corn and other issues,” potentially defusing a trade dispute between the nations, the Associated Press reports.